The present invention relates generally to metabolic reaction networks of microorganisms. More specifically, the present invention relates to identifying, discovering, and customizing microorganisms for generating environmentally-friendly energy from biological waste materials by utilization of certain desired metabolic properties or desired biological behaviors.
Historically, human civilizations have flourished around abundant water supplies. Successful continuity of cities is often contingent upon easy accessibility to water. Water is one of the most vitally necessary yet frequently overlooked resources for human survival. Due to an ever-increasing level of human impacts on the environment in modern civilization, water pollution has become an increasingly significant problem. The wastewater generated by anthropogenic influences need to be processed daily to ensure clean water consumption and environmental protection.
Several methods of conventional and biological treatments of wastewater have been widely used in the wastewater treatment industry, some of which include trickling bio-filter, activated sludge process, and suspended growth treatment systems. Currently, industrial wastewater is typically treated by aerobic systems that remove contaminants prior to discharging the water to river, lake or underground. Although the aerobic system is effective at cleaning waters, a major drawback is that these treatment systems require large amounts of electricity for proper operation. For example, annual power usage of a single residential aerobic wastewater treatment system is in the range of 750 to 1500 kWh. Aerobic systems also require continuous air supply which adds substantial maintenance cost for long term operation. The current wastewater treatment plants in the U.S. are estimated to consume approximately 5% of national electricity to perform wastewater treatment, which is equivalent to about $10 billion dollars. Another disadvantage of the aerobic wastewater treatment system is the production of large amounts of sludge. In a conventional aerobic wastewater treatment process, after aeration by the aerobic bacteria, sludge is generated in the form of wastewater residues, which require additional processing. Typically, this sludge is transported to landfills to decompose, which raises additional environmental pollution concerns. Furthermore, the aerobic process reduces the dissolved oxygen in the wastewater which is detrimental to fish and other aquatic life.
Another method of wastewater treatment involves using anaerobic systems that do not require free oxygen from the treatment process. The anaerobic systems generally require less electricity and are particularly useful for treatment of wastewater which has a high concentration of biodegradable organic materials (i.e. a high level of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, archaea, and protists). For example, in the food processing industry or small-scale wastewater treatment facilities, the annual power usage of a single anaerobic wastewater treatment system is in the range of 50˜100 kWh, which is approximately 7% of a comparable aerobic wastewater treatment system. Some anaerobic wastewater treatment systems can be further utilized to produce methane via anaerobic digestion by microorganisms. Furthermore, at least in a laboratory environment, electricity can be directly produced using the microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology involving anaerobic respiration of microorganisms. For the environmentally-friendly utilization of recycled energy, the generated methane from an anaerobic wastewater treatment system may be used to operate a methane-powered electrical plant, or be used as bottled sources of energy (e.g. heating fuels, and etc.). Similarly, the generated electricity from the MFC's can be utilized as a source of electrical energy.
However, typical wastewater used as feeds in an anaerobic wastewater treatment system are too dilute to be an efficient methane generator, resulting in a low methane-generating (i.e. methanogenic) efficiency. Similarly, although MFC's can generate electrical currents by using electrogenic bacteria as catalysts in an anaerobic wastewater treatment system or another type of wastewater treatment system, the efficiency of electricity generation (i.e. electrogenic efficiency) is substantially less than desirable, because microorganisms present in the wastewater are not optimized for electrogenic efficiency.
Therefore, a novel method and a related system for knowledge pattern search and analysis for identifying and selecting particularly useful microorganisms for a desired metabolic property or a desired biological behavior (e.g. a high methanogenic efficiency, a high electrogenic efficiency, and etc.) may be highly beneficial in improving efficiency of environmentally-friendly energy generation from biological waste materials.
Furthermore, utilizing a novel method of knowledge pattern search and analysis which can discover useful information patterns and meaningful information from an existing library of genetic and genome database and/or an empirical sample of wastewater or other biological waste materials may be highly beneficial for convenient and continued identification of particularly useful microorganisms for a desired metabolic property or a desired biological behavior.
In addition, discovering meaningful information patterns and usefulness of one or more microorganisms by utilizing semantical analysis and collaborative search returns of various pieces of disjointed yet new and unique information from multiple biochemical and genetic information sources by utilizing multiple learning agents may also be highly beneficial for users who are dynamically and continuously searching for useful microorganisms with a particular metabolic property or a biological behavior.